by Adeline Macdonald Clean steam iron the linen sheets, white and crisp and beautiful and without fault or fold White walls upon white walls with nothing to upset you or hurt you or make you cry or want to leave or want to think Do you love it? Is it…
by DS Maolalai doing my aunt a favour; pulling wildflowers from her prize-winning beds. I’m careful – when I can I save the stem and some root, piling them on the pavement and pushing the dirt down around her petunias. my aunt’s front garden is filled with red flowers, like…
by Lisa Harris My grandmother’s best friend, Vi Cotterfield, knew God. She could see the pulse of God’s work in everything: in her vegetables as they grew, in the trees as they stayed firmly planted in the earth, and in the star filled sky. She could detect a vibration underneath…
by Amy Covel Don’t let your dreams die You see, people will kill your dreams They don’t mean to They’re simply using words Voicing opinions Sometimes they’re just having a bad day A bad hour, a bad minute But that bad second Changes you for a lifetime But it’s just…
by Aviendha Francisco “You cannot have something for nothing.” It grinned at me, a smile devoid of emotion and full of teeth. It scratched its mangy fur and stared at me with eyes white as milk, wide as saucers. The green velvet divan underneath its cracked hooves provided an interesting…
by George Freek A sultry breeze weakens,as the dying sun fallslike a ball of lead.A raven searches for carrion,hovering above my head.I walk the lake shore alone.I walk like a man made of stone.If she were alive my wifewould walk by my side.My thoughts are disconnected.Like dead leavesthey scatter in…
by Gonzalinho da Costa I love to listen to your resonant chimes, Echoing, full, round,Collecting clear musical pools, Bright waterfalls of sound. I love to hear your brilliant bells Singing, mountain stream,Flowing concourse of luminous notesArranged to a liquid theme. I love to hear your hammers strike, Ripples across a…
by Tobie Shapiro The man had been tearing through the closet in ten-minute sessions of escalating deranged frenzy. The woman observed with decreasing detachment. “Honey. Stop.” His argument: “If I quit now,” he looked up with obsession in his eyes, “all this was an embarrassing waste of time. If you…
by George Freek The sparrow builds her nest,but the wren sleeps in it.The world’s a nasty place,even for the human race.Stars fade on a bleak night,Stars fade on a bleak night,and December windsnose through the streetslike hungry swine,searching for scraps to eat.The moon climbs the sky,like a curtain on a…
by Shah Tazrian Ashrafi There will come a time when your soul will be crossing the troposphere,The stratosphere, the mesosphere, all the spheres,Forsaking your home;Like dead birds in flight.And you will have wings for hands,You will drift far away from the war zone that you were born into,Jiving to the…
by Leslie Chehade Rise misty dawning A full raspberry bush drops green cereal bowl. And noontime combusts Dampened petals, sprinkler prayssodden bandana Evenfall gloaming Awhile tomato pie bakes Gone the garden spade